@CFB Good to see you alert and active
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Comments from @CFB
You were probably referring to me in this post. Body change has been outlawed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan vide a judgment which is over a year and a half old. Previously, body changes could be adjudicated and applicable duty and taxes deposited. @tintin1 is referring to such a change on his vehicle, however, same has been outlawed and is being observed religiously around the country. I myself have recently passed an order for a 1994 Hilux Tiger converted to a Toyota Surf, where the chassis was released being duty paid but the body was confiscated in favor of state. Removal of such body and expenses are to be borne by the person from whom such vehicle was seized.
Body change vehicles / amnesty vehicles and customs auction vehicles should never be purchased, without consulting your nearest Custom station. Please feel free to walk in and ask someone to inspect your vehicle, talk to the concerned Assistant / Deputy Collector for help and I assure you that you will find our staff helpful. If need be, please tag my identifier in these forums and I shall be more than happy to offer facilitation.
The vehicle you are referring to was a left hand drive 2011 Pajero, specially fitted for ISAF forces in Afghanistan. Said vehicle was stolen from Afghanistan and then recovered from Gujranwala from the possession of someone claiming to be a government official. Despite his connections, FIR was lodged and sentence was handed down by concerned court of law.
Incident above is not isolated, non duty paid vehicles have been recovered from various "affluent" people and have been confiscated accordingly. Above everything else, whenever such vehicles are recovered from these "affluent" people, they come down to begging for relief since exposure of these seizures to media has a lot of affect presently. Rather than beg behind closed doors, please preserve your self worth and dignity, in my opinion nothing is above it.
further added by @Xulfiqar
There are two kinds of body swaps, one is literally unbolting the entire body from the frame and installing a new one.
In this case you need to pay all the duties etc. or prove that the body is already duty paid (customs and excise would have the info)
The other body swap is unbolting and unclipping literally every little piece from the donor vehicle body shell and installing on yours, Its literally called building on old chassis/body from parts. - You can use the inner stamped and spot welded parts like radiator brace etc. but not structure parts - The remaining carcass is then useless and discarded.
This job is almost twice or upto three times expensive to do.
A lot of 80,90 and 100 series corollas have been redone this way - but they are unibody vehicles and technically have no chassis frame. The body structure is the chassis.
With the 2nd way for your LC your chassis and matching body are matching numbers - and customs wont care as its the same as someone buying scrap parts and installing on his/her car.
This is almost never done on Land Cruisers in Pakistan as it costs a massive amount of money and lack of qualified labour. And if you get a VIN type vehicle donor, the VINs are on the finish parts like doors etc too, and if that VIN is very hot (for any reason) - it can become an issue.
